A law that prohibits firearms on school property takes precedence over one that says a person licensed to carry firearms may bring them into school safety zones, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled.
A gun-rights group sought to compel a state panel to reinstate a statute that authorized licensed gun owners on school property. That measure was signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal on April 22, 2014. The next day, Deal signed House Bill 60, a bill that made it unlawful for any person to have a firearm “within a school safety zone” unless that person was dropping off or picking up a student.
The court found troubling that “the statute does not proscribe all speech that might be boisterous or disruptive.” It ruled that “the two statutes cannot stand together” and the “carrying of firearms in a school safety zone [does] not survive the subsequent enactment of HB 60.”
